insights from philippe martin, software architecture and engineering specialist, and florian jeliazovski, mobility executive partner.
Is servitization a path to the future for industry? This is what is suggested by the exclusive survey conducted by Randstad Digital among 215 decision-makers to analyze the trends that will define industry in 2030.
The shift from a model based on product sales to one centered on services emerges as a structuring trend. And for good reason: it could be a solid alternative to the planned obsolescence model, profoundly changing how equipment is designed, manufactured, and monetized.
In this article, two Randstad Digital experts, Philippe Martin, Software Architecture and Engineering Specialist, and Florian Jeliazovski, Mobility Executive Partner, share their observations and advice for anticipating this change.
In its white paper, "What Technological Horizons for Industry in 2030?" Randstad Digital reveals sectoral analyses conducted with industrial company executives and detailed recommendations from its experts to prepare the industry of 2030. Download it here.
servitization: a profitable solution to ecological challenges.
Regulatory pressure, societal expectations, and the rise of digital technologies are forcing companies to rethink their economic models. For some sectors, this reinvention is imperative to reconcile performance and environmental impact.
But how can profitability be maintained for products that are more costly to manufacture and whose sales volumes are likely to decrease? For decision-makers, servitization appears as a solution to explore. Indeed, among the 215 executives surveyed, 30% already consider it a structuring trend—a figure that reaches 42% among general management and 36% in large companies.
"Manufacturers must now design truly durable products while maintaining their profitability. To this end, an effective economic model is to sell the service rendered rather than the product itself. Servitization completely reverses the logic of planned obsolescence: the longer the product lasts and the more energy-efficient its operation, the more profitable the service is," observes Philippe Martin, Software Architecture and Engineering Specialist.
Make the product a sustainable and evolutionary foundation capable of supporting a long-term revenue model. This implies a modular, scalable design, based on a certain standardization, favoring updates rather than complete replacement. It also implies a highly repairable design, including wear measures to enable predictive maintenance, optimized to ensure the reliability of the service provided at the best cost.
This model of selling the service essentially rendered by the product is particularly suited to relatively expensive technological products, such as vehicles. However, it should not be confused with LLD (Long-Term Rental), which has been offered for years but continues to rely on products primarily designed to be sold to their users.
facing transformation costs, methodology is the answer.
If one sector illustrates this shift, it is mobility and transport. The automotive market, in particular, faces its biggest challenges in decades, between strong global competition, falling vehicle prices, and pressure on time-to-market. Servitization appears to be one of the solutions to implement.
As Florian Jeliazovski, Mobility Executive Partner, cited in the white paper, emphasizes, manufacturers must also simultaneously finance electrification, new features such as autonomous driving, software platforms, and the digitalization of the entire value chain. A colossal undertaking... as is its cost, estimated at tens or even hundreds of billions on an industry scale. But conducted methodically, the transformation can prove profitable.
"The sector is organizing itself with the deployment of the global strategic framework 'CASE': Connectivity, Autonomous, Shared and Electric. The digital transformation is forcing the automotive industry to move from a model centered on product production and sales to a model centered on software, data, and mobility services."
Progress incrementally, testing service models within limited scopes before industrialization to reduce risk, adjust value, and strengthen the margin on the service rather than on volume. The shift to the software-defined vehicle and service models requires securing data, ensuring the reliability of software platforms, and mastering embedded technologies. A methodology essential for reinforcing margins on services.
in perspective: achieving servitization by 2030.
Beyond technology, one conviction unites Randstad Digital's experts: the success of service models will rely as much on the evolution of products as on the organizations themselves by 2030. New expertise (data, software architecture, customer experience, etc.) will need to emerge, as well as a different, more transversal way of working, more oriented towards long-term value.
The 2030 horizon will not be purely technological. It will be organizational, cultural, and deeply strategic.
to go further.
Download the white paper "What Technological Horizons for Industry in 2030?" and discover:
- Complete analyses from Randstad Digital experts.
- Detailed sectoral data based on feedback from 215 industry decision-makers.
- Structural trends to anticipate.
- Concrete levers for building a more efficient, sustainable, and sovereign industry.